Ziggurat!

We are very pleased about Ziggurat being here.  Well, not exactly in Sta. Rosa, but at the border--in Silang.

It occupies a corner of the ground floor of Stanford Suites in Bgy. Inchican. Right across the St. Scholastica's College, and St. Benedict's Church.

I don't know how Ziggurat is related to the Destination Hotel (a few roomswithin the building), but they gave us discount vouchers for the rooms after we paid for our meal. Oh, the building is a condo-tel. 
http://www.southforbes.com/house-lot-laguna-cavite-philippines-stanford-suites/
I am not connected in any way to the owners or staff of this restaurant.  We simply just enjoyed it in our previous city, and now here it is in our next one.

We are very, very pleased...

...having lived in close proximity to the main Ziggurat in Makati prior to here.  We didn't know we had missed it.

OKAY BEFORE I CONTINUE...LET ME SAY WE ARE LOVING PERI-PERI CHICKEN IN SOLENAD NUVALI. APPARENTLY SO DO MANY PEOPLE, AS THAT PLACE IS ALWAYS FULL! 

ZIGGURAT IS A JUST LOCATED IN  NICE QUIET CORNER NEAR THE CHURCH WITH CUISINE WE ALSO SAVOR.

I will leave a few not-so-great photos...but the menu, the extensive menu of North African, Middle Eastern, African, Meditteranean Indian dishes....I will leave for you to peruse in detail when you visit.  Extensive as the menu list is, not all the dishes are available at any one time because of ingredients on stock.  I am happy as long as there is lamb!
(and hey, prices are reasonable)

couscous!

https://www.facebook.com/Ziggurat-Cuisine-Restaurant-125013094177654/

Lent

Candles at St. John Bosco Parish, Santa Rosa

     One of my rituals, not only during Lent, is to stop by the Perpetual Help Candle Sanctuary at the St. John Bosco Parish Church in bgy. Don Jose.

     If I am lucky and the candle drawers are newly replenished, I go for all the colors available, regardless of their symbolism. There is a poster enumerating the colors and what they symbolise.  Red is for birthdays, anniversaries, and white for general intentions.  I do not memorize what the other colors represent, as I light any or all available.  I do know that the one most often out of stock or low in supply, is the one for finances.

     Now that's not really a surprise, is it.

     You can opt to donate cash in the adjoining box, and I do have an amount set per candle.  From 1996 to 2007 I used to stop by to light candles at the St. Andrew parish in Bel-air, Makati, and pray to Our Lady of Czestochowa. Now, it is here, and not regularly.  Lighting a candle and praying while gazing at its flame is meditative and brings me instant peace.

     While being in the parish after the morning mass and when the place is empty makes me wary these days...(the new fences and gates have enhanced my insecurity), I find it is still quite neighborly and comforting enough to see the parishioners leaving or hanging around chatting.   
     
     Options for Bisita Iglesia in the vicinity are St. John Bosco in Bgy. Don Jose, and in through the Inchican Road (which intersects Laguna Blvd), is St. Benedict in Ayala Westgrove.  I do not think the Oratory at Xavier School Nuvali nor the Chapel inside Montecito will be open to the public for this activity.  Farther toward the Santa Rosa SLEX toll, past Greenfield is the Laguna Bel-air chapel.  Another route is to go up towards Tagaytay, where starting in Lumil, Silang is the San Antonio de Padua church, relatively new, but already having seen many weddings.  Indeed it was built for those, in my opinion.  Angel Fields' Holy Family Pavilion is not a church, but the place is a retreat place, with cottages to rent.

    And then of course, up toward Tagaytay for the rest of the churches.